Category: Portfolio Management

STOCK ANALYSIS: NU HOLDINGS (NU) NUBANK’S RISE TO SOUTH AMERICAN UBIQUITY Overview Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE:NU) is a Brazilian holding company which provides digital banking services in South America founded in 2013 and headquartered in São Paolo, Brazil. It has found great success by exploiting this untapped market, as South American countries have gradually begun to digitalize (1), and people yearn for a more simple and straightforward process that grants them access to financing. Its product offering is diverse, providing personal loans, credit cards, and insurance policies, with it eyeing a move to diversify its revenue sources by entering new industries. It launched its IPO on December 9th, 2021, on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE), at a price of $9 per share, raising additional capital of $2.6 billion, with…

Swiftonomics, a term coined to describe the economic influence of Taylor Swift, encapsulates the intersection of pop culture and economics. As one of the world's most influential artists, Swift's activities generate significant economic ripples, affecting various industries and market behaviors.  Concert Tours and Local Economies Taylor Swift's concert tours are a prime example of Swiftonomics in action. Her tours, such as the "Reputation Stadium Tour" and "The Eras Tour," attract millions of fans worldwide, leading to substantial economic benefits for host cities. When Swift performs in a city, there is a noticeable spike in local spending on hotels, restaurants, transportation, and merchandise, peaking at the "Reputation Stadium Tour", which grossed $345.7 million, and its economic impact on local businesses was estimated to be even higher. Market Power and Pricing Strategies…

Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) was founded almost 150 years ago in 1876 by Colonel Eli Lilly and it is one of the leaders in the healthcare industry. The company has its HQ in Indianapolis, Indiana, has more than 44,000 employees and its products are marketed in approximately 105 countries, as can be seen in their website. They have a growing portfolio of medicines in key areas, which are:  Alzheimer's Pain; Cancer; Immunology; Diabetes;  Obesity. These last two categories are the main reason why the stock is rallying lately, thanks to its new obesity and diabetes drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound. Another factor that is pushing the stock price up, is their new Alzheimer’s drug, which is in late-stage trials.  In 2024, the company had an impressive performance of +45.82%…

Moody’s Corporation, founded in 1909, has its headquarters in New York City. Moody’s Corporation operates as an integrated risk assessment firm globally, they provide market credit ratings, research, tools, and analysis. Moody’s Ratings (previously known as Moody’s Investor Service) is the part of the company that deals with credit ratings. Its ratings and research in this field cover debt instruments and securities issued by various entities, including corporations, financial institutions, government, and government-related entities. They measure the credit risk of obligors and issuers. This part of the business generates revenue through various channels: Rating Fees: Issuers of debt instruments pay fees to Moody’s to rate their debt. The price of these fees depends on the instrument’s complexity. Annual Fees: Moody’s generally charges companies annually to keep their credit ratings up…

The value of Copper, often referred to as "Dr. Copper" for its role as an economic indicator, is experiencing a significant rally in its market value. Prices have surpassed $10,000 per ton for the first time since April 2022, reaching around $10,220 per ton, driven by soaring global demand and tight supplies, rising 29% from year to date. Copper's critical role in the global transition to net-zero emissions by 2050 underscores its increasing importance. As the world accelerates efforts to combat climate change, copper will be central for the development of different green-initiatives and must overcome the different hurdles in its way in order to solidify its status as the most vital metal in the energy transition. Copper's role is expanding beyond traditional sectors like construction and electronics to new,…

Many of the most important power companies have started to either change or review their targets to develop renewable energy because of high costs in development and low costs of electricity. This comes as a sign of the general difficulties that present in transitioning away from fossil fuels. The continent’s largest renewable energy producer, Starkraft, announced the review of their annual targets for new renewables capacity, while EDP, an important Portuguese energy company started cutting back its plans quoting high interest rates and low power prices. On the other hand also Denmark’s Ørsted, recognized as the world’s largest offshore wind developer, downgraded its targets for renewable energy for 2030 by more than 10GW, a measure enough to potentially supply millions of homes. The downgrade of this particular target came as…

May 16th, 2024 - ChatGPT maker OpenAI held its "Spring Update" event on Monday, where it announced a new desktop app, a web UI refresh, and the launch of its most advanced model, GPT-4o. The demo showcased how edge devices, starting with Macs and iPhones, can benefit from AI. By integrating voice, text, and images, the demo also highlighted AI's potential to significantly boost productivity. Much of the demo utilized a "hardwired" Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone to reduce latency in real-time interactions.  In this context, analysts at Bank of America reiterated a Buy rating on AAPL, saying they expect the tech giant “to be a net beneficiary of AI at the edge” with “gross margin upside and momentum in services' '. Among Apple Inc. (AAPL)'s renowned products are smartphones, personal computers, tablets,…

May 8th, 2024 - Today, Shopify (SHOP) (-19.3% at 10:35 AM EDT), a notorious Canadian e-commerce firm  operating in multiple countries, disclosed its expectations about quarterly revenue growth  and the forecasted values are the worst in the last two years. Among the several factors that  led to this poor result are the decreasing consumers’ spending trend in recent times as  well as the fact that the core of Shopify’s clientele represented by small and medium-sized  companies has been heavily hit by the ongoing inflation. The company’s forecast for the  second quarter of 2024 did not meet Shopify’s investors’ expectations at all, considering that  the latter experienced an average revenue growth of 26% in the last quarters (with respect  to this, LSEG data drove analysts to predict a growth rate of…

May 5th, 2024 - Founded in 1926, United Airlines is an international airline company with more than 100,000 employees headquartered in Chicago, Illinois that provides air transportation services worldwide. Its business lines include people transportation, which is the primary source of revenue, and cargo transportation, which offers freight and mail services. These two segments contribute to form the company’s operating income, alongside with other revenue, that includes revenue generated from third-party businesses such as maintenance services and flight academy.  The company’s motto is “Connecting People. Uniting the World” and it is what drives its decision making. Their approach, as reported in their website, is based on seven pillars: safety, environmental sustainability, people and human capital, community, supply chain integrity, cybersecurity, and governance.  The company is also very active on ESG,…

May 1st, 2024 - In the current year, 2024, market trends have 3 main characteristics: medium growth, high inflation and elevated geopolitical risks. Such factors hinder investment strategies and opportunities across most asset sectors.  Said geopolitical uncertainties influence the equity market, as it can be deduced from growth expectations of 2-3% in the S&P 500. Thus warning investors to exercise extreme caution, specifically when dealing within the markets impacted by these economic hardships. Contrastingly, companies involved in AI show greater promise of growth. In fact, after careful consideration, the following companies have the highest growth potential: MSFT, NVIDIA (its one year return is over 211%- best performing stock for may 2024). Another possible investment would be Crowdstrike holdings inc. (CRWD). The company specialises in cybersecurity and has demonstrated robust performance…